catonkatonk [none/use name]

I thought it was because videogames toned down the jiggle physics or whatever.

That’s a good question. You are right that if we wanted to see the extent of Anne’s vapidity we could just read her book. Speaking for myself, I was never going to do that. While I’m sure most here figured her out a long time ago, seeing her talk at length like this was eye-opening to me at least. And probably the same for a lot of people whose only exposure to her is from the odd piece in the FT or whatever. Honestly, if someone wanted a primer on how and why western hegemony is failing, I think an hour of Anne Applebaum discussing her honestly held views is as good an explanation as any. In this respect, I prefer a guest like Anne Applebaum over a Mehdi Hassan if only because the former embodies the actual values of the state rather than the professed values represented by the latter. It really is something to behold the emperor without any clothes.

But, if it’s telling you something you already know, it IS pointless and counter-productive. There are people who will watch it and think, “Gosh, she’s right, Poland DID do well in its transition to neoliberalism and therefore the system is sound and was implemented with good intentions and Russia is just innately full of bad people who can’t succeed”. Is it acceptable to allow obvious falsehoods like that to be stated without any pushback? Ehhhh…

Bastani never asks tough questions, he just lets his guests speak at length. That’s his style. Applebaum is hard to take at such concentrated doses, but I do think it is an insightful glimpse into the diseased and delusional mind of the imperial elites.

I don’t think he should care about people’s gut reactions. The genocide is actively harmful to America’s imperial interests and Biden’s own ambitions for the middle east (normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia for example). It’s harmful to most capitalists except for the weapons goons. I don’t think it’s accurate to say that what is happening is simply because of an inability to see Palestinians as human and thus not caring about their extermination because they stand in the way of some logical goal. That logical reason exists for the vassal state, of course, but many vassal states have desires that the Americans will not allow them to indulge.

We have no reluctance to look at many historical genocides and to determine that blood lust and racial animosity were primary drivers. Why should this one be different? We have, on record, some of the most bloodthirsty comments ever publicly made by government officials in Israel, we know that beyond the pragmatic desire to control greater territory, Israel is in the grip of a violent mania. Why should that not extend to the one essentially telling them to do it?

The later entries in the series from the looks of it lean heavy into the Shonen look with weeb fanservice.

Artstyle wise, maybe, especially 2. All three have a lot of Saturday Morning Cartoon nonsense going on, though. Silly schoolyard bully villains hamming it up, lots of “fights” that involve characters standing around and talking about their Special Power or whatever.

3 probably has the least of that, and of the “fanservice” of the type I think you mean, and is possibly the most like Xenogears. But still not the same thing (but maybe if Xenogears was made today it would be like Xenoblade anyway - maybe the real difference is in fidelity and amount of acting etc., I dunno! Some things that work when read don’t when heard…). Honestly, I think the biggest similarity between 3 and Gears is that the makers once again tried to do something immense and profound and kind of whiffed. But still totally worth experiencing even though it’s compromised. Pretty pro-communist as well. Amusingly so.

On , I saw people clutching their pearls at the chant and explaining that it is a terrorist rallying cry, and that even Wikipedia mentions the connection.

But also, what if he had been a Muslim immigrant? That obviously wouldn’t justify anything that had happened. And so the race, religion and nationality of the attacker are entirely irrelevant.

I wonder why the government is having a difficult time signalling to its population that collective punishment is unacceptable…

The British state-run media organisation has been egregiously bad. Look at this shit. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cervv8rz8mzo

An anti-immigration protest began peacefully outside Bolton Town Hall earlier, but within half an hour, about 300 people, who mostly had their faces covered with black face masks or balaclavas, charged towards the building. They began shouting “Allahu Akbar” - a phrase meaning God is greatest - as they arrived at one side of the town hall, where a separate group had gathered waving England flags.

Meanwhile, here is footage of that event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3QDnJeoYJM&t

I think you’re thinking of the one in Rotherham, where the police formed a line in front of the wall of the Holiday Inn, while the fash smashed through the doors and entered it three metres away from them.